🏏Cricket World Cup 2023: Match #5: Ind vs Aus Th # 2 link Pg 150

🏏Cricket World Cup 2023: Match #5 - India vs Australia at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, on 8 Oct 2023 at 2:00 PM IST🏏

No easing in for India and Australia as their World Cup campaigns begin at storied Chepauk

One is the home favourite of whom so much is expected. The other knocks off World Cups for fun. Both will know they have to begin at their best to stand any chance of two points

"50-over World Cup is the biggest sporting event in cricketing history. So, for me, this is the biggest event that I will be part of."

You might share this sentiment, expressed by Rohit Sharma on Saturday, but you may not have seen too much evidence just yet that too many others do. Four matches in, we're yet to see anything like a full house at this World Cup.

This will change on Sunday, in Chennai. You'll know that a World Cup is going on. The air will crackle with anticipation, but there'll be a tinge of anxiety too, for this is India's first match in a home World Cup that they start as favourites. It's hard to imagine the pressure a team can go through in these situations, and it'll come as a relief to India's players when the umpires call "play", and there's a ball to focus on, or a batter and a set of stumps at the other end.

It'll be a stern test right off the bat, because they're playing Australia, and is there anything as spine-jellifying in sport as the prospect of facing Australia in a cricket World Cup? This Australian team isn't the Australian team of 1999, 2003 or 2007, and they aren't a complete team either, lacking most of all depth in the spin department, but you'd be surprised if they didn't make the semi-finals at the least. India won't face too many stronger oppositions in this tournament. They aren't being eased into this at all.

Spin is expected to be hugely influential at Chepauk, and India are better equipped in that regard, on paper, but they only have to go as far back as March, when they lost to Australia at the same venue, to know it won't always translate into results.

Chepauk, newly renovated, sports a series of murals commemorating the many historic moments it has witnessed. One is particularly interesting, and unusual in a country that usually only celebrates the achievements of its own: Pakistan's victorious team soaking in a standing ovation while going on a victory lap of Chepauk in 1999. This is a crowd known to appreciate good cricket no matter who plays it, so they're guaranteed a good time on Sunday, as long as the rain stays away.

Tag Credit: Sutapasima

The India vs Australia match in Chennai will start at 2 pm IST. The weather conditions are expected to be hazy. The temperature will be around 33 degrees with chances of a passing shower as per Accuweather. There is an 8 percent chance of rain in the afternoon. The weather conditions will be mainly clear in the afternoon with the temperature around 28 degrees.

The Chepauk pitch historically has helped the spinners more than the pacers. If the first two games of this World Cup are to go by, the team chasing has an advantage over the team batting first due to the impact of dew. A high-scoring contest is on the cards.

Pitch and conditions

A straw-coloured, black-soil pitch is likely to induce India to play three spinners. Chepauk tends to offer a fair contest between bat and ball: the last eight first-innings scores in ODIs here have ranged from 227 to 299, with the team batting first going on to win six times.

The weather is likely to be muggy, with a forecast maximum of 33 degrees Celsius. The North-East monsoon could bring scattered showers in the evening.

Team Watch:

India

There are only two spots really up for contention. The first of them, the potential void at the top of the order caused by Gill's illness, is expected to be filled by Ishan Kishan. The other is the identity of the No.8, which on evidence of the conditions and the sights from India's practice session should be taken up by local boy Ravichanrdan Ashwin, giving India a 3+3 attack combination with Hardik Pandya operating as the third seamer.

Tactics & Strategy:

Hardik Pandya has dismissed Steve Smith five times in 75 balls bowled at Australia's batting fulcrum in this format. Hardik is likely to operate as a first change bowler in case Smith comes in early or operate through the middle-overs where Smith is expected to do most of his batting.

Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

Australia

Australia have a toss-up for the third all-rounder's slot. Cameron Green is the incumbent at No.6 but Marcus Stoinis has made some improvements since he suffered a hamstring niggle and has been hard at work in the nets. Cummins reckoned it's still touch and go for the all-rounder although a call on his selection will be taken closer to the game.

Tactics & Strategy:

Adam Zampa took 4-45 and was the Player of the Match here in Chennai when Australia won a series decider in March. He enjoys a positive head-to-head against several Indian batters. In ODIs, he's dismissed Kohli five times, Rohit, Hardik and Rahul four times each.

Probable XI: David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green/Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

Don't forget to submit your predictions for match 5.

Toss prediction before 1:30 PM IST and rest of the predictions before 2:00 PM IST.

All the very best to everyone!

Tag Credit: Sutapasima

The two finalists from the last edition may have cut the ribbon and six others may have all recorded their opening statements but after the initial clanking of the pulleys, it is anticipated that the first gears of the 2023 World Cup will be thrummed into life on Sunday with a blockbuster booking in Chennai. The top-ranked ODI side versus the five-time winners, two teams joined at the hip with the base expectation of winning the whole thing.

Australia are World Cup royalty, having won a title in each of the continents that has hosted this event. Given their pedigree, form leading into these events (1 win in their last 6 ODIs this time) bears little or no practical relevance to their top billing. Through the last decade, India too have started as favourites in each of these ICC events but haven't actually put a title-winning run together. Rohit Sharma will bear the burden of this streak as well as the pressures of winning at home, like how each of the last three World Cup hosts have managed.

If the sense of occasion has somehow escaped India because they've travelled to two diametric ends of the country in the last week without so much as sending a ball down, it will register on Sunday. There is scope for some early tone-setting pyrotechnics during which there is hope that the 50-over format will re-enter the public consciousness amid the celebratory mood of the '100 Medals' achievement at the Asian Games.

Both teams come into the fixture having gently sparred in a three-match series with unrepresentative teams in only somewhat representative conditions. For this real deal, the two first-time World Cup captains will admit the difference between their sides is wafer thin. Rohit may have the better set of spinners, but Adam Zampa and Glenn Maxwell can prove to be more than a handful. Australia have the left-arm point of difference in Mitchell Starc but it's Siraj and Bumrah that boast the superior PowerPlay potency.

Even minor disturbances to their overall plans would seem in sync. Australia are missing daredevil bat Travis Head while India's rising star Shubman Gill is a doubtful starter. If this on-paper closeness translates on the field, then it could just come down to which team can cope better with the possibility of losing.

When: India vs Australia, October 8, 2023, 14:00 IST

Where: MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

What to expect: A warm afternoon leading into a sultry evening. There is a 10% chance of a slight drizzle around the match start time, which even if it hits, is unlikely to cause any truncation to the game. These two sides played at this very venue six months ago where Australia's 269 -- four short of the average first-innings total here in the last five games -- proved to be a winning score. A black soil pitch has once more been selected for the game and while that is no indication it'll play similar to the last game, spinners are expected to come into the game over the course of the game making batting first a worthy option.

Stats and trivia

• The MA Chidambaram Stadium has hosted seven World Cup games. Australia have played three of them and won each time: they beat India by one run in a group-stage thriller and hammered Zimbabwe by 96 runs here in 1987; then, in the quarter-finals of the 1996 edition, they chased down 287 to see off New Zealand.
• India have played one other World Cup game at Chepauk apart from the 1987 loss to Australia. They beat West Indies by 80 runs here during their run to the title in 2011.
• India and Australia have met 12 times in ODIs since the end of the 2019 World Cup and won six games each.

Quotes

"You heard the great man say so many times that you know, until he wins the World Cup, he's got a bit of unfinished business. I'm sure you know who I'm talking about. So it's the same for us as well. You want to win the World Cup, It's the biggest prize that you can have in your career. But again, there's a way to do it. There's a procedure that you need to follow. There's a process to it […] It's good to be desperate. It's good to be hungry. But you've got to find that balance, right? […] You cannot get way too ahead of yourself because that can lead into something that you don't really wish for."

India captain Rohit Sharma throws in a Sachin Tendulkar (or Lionel Messi) reference to highlight what this World Cup means to his team

"I think the most exciting thing about a World Cup is it is a campaign. It does feel like you're there with 14 other guys and you're on a journey to try and make the next couple of months as special as it can be. So I love that. There's no forward planning and you're not trying to manage different formats now. We're here for a World Cup and everyone's fully focused on that. So, I've really enjoyed that and the boys have been awesome so far and yeah, it's my third World Cup and first one as captain. They're all really special."

Australia captain Pat Cummins

Excited!!

btw where to submit the predictions?

Plz give me the link

IND VS AUS HEAD-TO-HEAD IN ODIS

Matches played: 149

India won: 56

Australia won: 83

No Result: 10

Last result: Australia won by 66 runs (Rajkot; Sep. 2023)

Last five results: IND won - 2; AUS won - 3

Australia won 8 out of 12 matches they played with India in the world cup ODIs.